redis/redis-py · error · ValueError

Driver name must not be None

Error message

Driver name must not be None

What it means

Raised as ValueError by DriverInfo.add_upstream_driver (redis/driver_info.py:123) when driver_name is None. A None name cannot be formatted into the CLIENT SETINFO LIB-NAME payload, so it is rejected explicitly before any further validation runs.

Source

Thrown at redis/driver_info.py:123

    @property
    def upstream_drivers(self) -> List[str]:
        """Return a copy of the upstream driver entries.

        Each entry is in the form ``"driver-name_vversion"``.
        """

        return list(self._upstream)

    def add_upstream_driver(
        self, driver_name: str, driver_version: str
    ) -> "DriverInfo":
        """Add an upstream driver to this instance and return self.

        The most recently added driver appears first in :pyattr:`formatted_name`.
        """

        if driver_name is None:
            raise ValueError("Driver name must not be None")
        if driver_version is None:
            raise ValueError("Driver version must not be None")

        _validate_driver_name(driver_name)
        _validate_driver_version(driver_version)

        entry = _format_driver_entry(driver_name, driver_version)
        # insert at the beginning so latest is first
        self._upstream.insert(0, entry)
        return self

    @property
    def formatted_name(self) -> Optional[str]:
        """Return the base name with upstream drivers encoded, if any.

        With no upstream drivers, this is just :pyattr:`name`. Otherwise::

            name(driver1_vX;driver2_vY)

View on GitHub (pinned to da03cdc7e8)

Solutions

1. Ensure the name is a non-None string before calling add_upstream_driver.
2. Default the name to a real identifier (your package's __title__) when the source is optional.
3. Validate config at load time so None never reaches the DriverInfo API.

Example fix

// before
info.add_upstream_driver(os.environ.get('DRIVER_NAME'), '1.0.0')  # None if unset

// after
info.add_upstream_driver(os.environ.get('DRIVER_NAME') or 'my-driver', '1.0.0')

name = os.environ.get('DRIVER_NAME') or 'my-driver'
assert name is not None, 'driver name missing'
info.add_upstream_driver(name, version)

def is_nonempty_str(v) -> bool:
    return isinstance(v, str) and v != ''

When it happens

Trigger: Calling add_upstream_driver(None, version) — typically because a variable holding the name was uninitialized, came back None from a config lookup, or a default argument leaked through.

Common situations: Reading driver metadata from an env var / config that returned None; an optional field whose default propagated; a refactor that dropped the name argument.

Related errors

• Driver version must not be None
• {field_name} must not contain spaces, newlines, non-printabl
• Upstream driver name must use a Python package-style name: s
• Cannot use FIELDNAME alias with no field
• Bad query type {type(query)}

AI-assisted analysis of redis/redis-py@da03cdc7e8 (2026-08-04). Data as JSON: /data/errors/9aac042e86bda15a.json. Report an issue: GitHub.